Bingo! Rank plays Gala card January 30, 2012 RANK Group yesterday confirmed it is “in discussions” with Gala Coral Group about a potential £250m acquisition of Gala’s casinos business. The terms of any acquisition have not yet been finalised, stated Rank, and there is no certainty that any transaction will occur. A spokesperson for Rank declined to confirm when talks between the parties [...]
Optimism of housebuilders is misguided July 5, 2011 PERSIMMON tried to sound an upbeat note yesterday, insisting it expected the housing market to pick up over the rest of the year. We don’t share the housebuilder’s optimism. House prices have been moving sideways for the past six months and mortgage lending remains tight. Would-be first-time buyers, unable to find the 20 per cent [...]
Spending spree plans at London & Stamford July 21, 2011 LONDON & Stamford Property (L&S) has stepped up plans to expand its residential portfolio, agreeing to buy more than 100 residential properties in north London for £49.1m. The real estate developer announced yesterday it had bought 107 private residential units and 31 car parking spaces in Islington from Seward Street Developments, bringing its total portfolio [...]
PROPERTY NEWS July 7, 2011 LONDONERS LOVE NORTH AND SOUTH WEST BOROUGHS North and south west boroughs dominate London’s top ten development hotspots, according to research from CB Richard Ellis. Although Kensington and Chelsea has predictably topped the table of London’s residential favourites, the new research reveals that good development prospects are not limited to central locations. Jennet Siebrits of [...]
Rents in London now average more than £1,000 per month July 14, 2011 RENTAL costs have soared past £1,000 per month in London, a survey of letting agents revealed this morning. London’s rents were up an average of 6.9 per cent per property in June compared to the same time the previous year, the Buy-to-Let Index from LSL Property Services said. While rent inflation is particularly intense in [...]
Rents in London now average more than £1,000 per month July 14, 2011 RENTAL costs have soared past £1,000 per month in London, a survey of letting agents revealed this morning. London’s rents were up an average of 6.9 per cent per property in June compared to the same time the previous year, the Buy-to-Let Index from LSL Property Services said. While rent inflation is particularly intense in [...]
Denmark now seen as debt safe haven January 2, 2012 DENMARK has revealed that it saw a surge in demand for its debt from international investors last year, making it the latest non-Eurozone state to cash in on the hunt for a “safe haven”. The Danish central bank said that over a third of the country’s outstanding debt is now owned by foreign buyers, up [...]
Landlords bullish on the future of rental properties June 1, 2011 DESPITE the downbeat outlook on house prices from analysts at Morgan Stanley (see left), UK landlords are increasingly optimistic about their buy-to-let prospects. Forty-nine per cent of landlords think that now is a good time to invest in new properties, according to research by LSL Property Services. Just one per cent are looking at reducing [...]
Barratt sees return to full year profit July 14, 2011 BARRATT Developments, one of the UK’s largest house builders, said it would return to full-year profit despite market conditions remaining tough. The firm predicted a full-year pre-tax profit of £40m before exceptional items, after a loss of £33m in 2010, meeting market expectations. In its trading statement ahead of its annual results due September, the [...]
Lenders slash mortgage rates to the lowest levels on record June 27, 2011 MORTGAGE interest rates have plummeted to an historic low, as lenders expect the Bank of England to persist with its loose monetary policy. Both tracker and fixed rate mortgages have slipped to their cheapest levels since 1988, when the website Moneyfacts began collecting the data. “An imminent rise in the Bank base rate now appears [...]